Alyssa DeHayes: Vintage Rock PR Goddess

Alyssa DeHayes, an indie music publicist who moonlights as a blogger/vintage collector/entrepreneur, thrives on confronting and debunking expectations of women in her various spheres of influence. At the age of 25, she is already a seasoned Jane of All Trades: she runs a booth at local vintage boutique Agora (featured in issue 2), she is in the process of starting Arrowhawk Records (her own record label), and she documents it all on her blog, Arrowhead Vintage. The Atlanta native sat down with me Friday afternoon to talk style, music, and workaholism.

Q: In your blog’s Album/Outfit series, you post outfits that you’ve created inspired by album artwork. It is very different from anything I’ve seen before — why did you start doing that?

A: There doesn’t seem to be any blog that says you can like dresses but you can also have a huge record collection and that doesn’t mean you are less authentic in either side of your life. So whenever I put together an Album/Outfit post, I’ll put a hardcore band with a frilly dress, and I kind of get this kick out of showing that you can know about both of these things and you can like both of these things, but it doesn’t mean that there is one kind of person that wears dresses and one kind of person who collects records. It can be the same person.

Q: What inspires your fashion the most?

A: My parents have a big influence on it. They’ve always been really into all things Southwestern. They took me to pow wows as a kid when I was growing up. My mom’s always dripping with chunky turquoise jewelry and my dad has all these great turquoise belt buckles and western shirts. So I guess my style is one half southwestern stuff and western wear and the other half is just lots of black and leather and band t-shirts. It’s like the work stuff and the family stuff.

Q: What are your favorite blogs?

A: The Man Repeller, Liebemarlene, A Beautiful Mess and Frockazine

Q: Tell me about your vintage booth at Agora?

A: My friend and I used to have a brick-and-mortar vintage store called Oh Boy, and we closed that up because we realized that we had full time jobs and then we’re spending all our nights and weekends at the store. I had all kinds of stuff left over and tons of stuff from my own closet — or two closets — so I rented a space from Agora. It’s fun that I still get my different outlets when I’m so surrounded with music stuff, then I get to switch gears into dealing with selling vintage and jewelry and then switch gears into other things.

Q: And you’re also starting a record label of your own?

A: I had always thought that it could be interesting to start a record label. At the same time, it seemed like a really risky venture — everybody is constantly trying to adapt and figure out how to sell records these days. Bambara are old friends of mine and their upcoming record is really fantastic. They weren’t planning on pressing vinyl, so we just decided one night that I’m going to press vinyl for them. And so we’re figuring it out.

Q: How scary is it actually pursuing these risky ventures?

A: At first it wasn’t that scary, because I was like, “oh yeah, I’m just putting out a record for my friends.” And then that turned into – “What’s your label name going to be?” I had that quick panic — oh my god, I’m starting a record label. I’m actually starting a record label. We should have vinyl back in about 8 weeks, and we’re figuring how to set up an online storefront.  It’s been really, really exciting.

Q: Seems like a really time consuming hobby — do you feel overwhelmed by it?

A: I feel like I have a habit of choosing hobbies that are kind of like night jobs, like my hobby of selling vintage, or my hobby of having a blog or my hobby of having a record label. But I like being busy. I like that satisfaction that comes from working on something and then having something to show at the end of it.

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